The present invention relates generally to traffic marker devices or safety cones used to alert or divert vehicles, watercrafts, aircrafts and pedestrians to pass safely around hazards, obstacles or other areas. More particularly, the present invention relates to a device and method for automatically placing safety cones to areas where it is necessary to alert or divert vehicles, watercrafts, aircrafts or pedestrians.
Traffic or safety cones are routinely used to direct motorists and pedestrians away from obstacles or dangerous areas. Safety cones are usually brightly colored, hollow conical shaped devices made of a synthetic, rubber or other plastic (See for example U.S. Pat. No. 2,333,273 to Scanlon et al.). Commonly, safety cones are placed by an individual who is manually delivering and/or placing these cones to a particular place on, for instance, but not limited to, a freeway, a road, a street, an intersection, or the like. In other cases, a vehicle can take an individual to a particular place, however it is still the individual that needs to place the safety cones by hand once the vehicle has arrived at that particular place. This task is labor-intensive, slow and could easily result in chronic back-injuries in those individuals who perform such a task routinely. Automation of this task would be preferred. However, with the current safety cones, being fairly rigid and having a tendency to easily fall over, delivering the cones in an automatic fashion from a moving vehicle would not be practical. The reason that this would not be practical is due to the chance for the current relatively rigid safety cones to remain upright upon placement would not be that high when they are delivered and placed from a moving vehicle. Furthermore, if such an automation would take place with the current fairly rigid safety cones, and since some or most of these cones would not able to maintain their upright position, the fallen cones need to be re-placed to their upright position by an individual so that these cones can be useful to the public as safety cones. Therefore, there is first a strong need for improved safety cones or marker devices. Second there is a strong need for an apparatus and method to automatically deliver and place such improved safety cones.
The present invention provides a device, method and system for automatically delivering and placing a safety cone to a position on a ground surface from a moving vehicle. The key idea of the present invention is that there is a receptacle that holds a plurality of safety cones. A releasing means which is attached to the receptacle is controlled and advances the safety cones in an automatic and controlled fashion, one-by-one, to different locations on a road, street, freeway, intersection, or the like.
The device of the present invention includes a receptacle for holding a plurality of safety cones. The preferred selection of safety cones that could be used in the present invention is a safety cone that includes a flexible means positioned over a base and wherein the bottom of the flexible means is attached to the base. The device further includes a releasing means for releasing one out of the plurality of safety cones to a position on a ground surface. The releasing means advances one safety cone to a position on the ground, while it prevents the remainder of the plurality of safety cones from being released from the receptacle. In order to control the timing of each release the device of the present invention also includes a control means to control the releasing means.
The method of the present invention for automatically placing a safety cone includes the step of providing a receptacle for holding a plurality of safety cones. The method further includes the step of providing a releasing means for releasing one out of the plurality of safety cones, one at a time, from the receptacle to a position on a ground surface, while preventing the remainder of the plurality of safety cones from being released from the receptacle. A control means is provided to control said release of each safety cone.
The system of the present invention for automatically delivering and placing safety cones from a moving vehicle includes a receptacle for holding a plurality of safety cones, whereby the receptacle is attached to the moving vehicle. The system further includes a releasing means for releasing one out of the plurality of safety cones, one at a time, to a position on a ground surface. During the release the releasing means prevents the remainder of the plurality of safety cones from being released from the receptacle. The system further includes a control means to control the releasing means and placement of the plurality of safety cones at different positions on the ground surface.
In view of that which is stated above, it is the objective of the present invention to automatically place safety cones to a ground surface.
It is still another objective of the present invention to automatically deliver safety cones to a ground surface from a moving vehicle.
It is still another objective of the present invention to provide a receptacle attached to a vehicle for holding a plurality of safety cones that could be placed on a ground surface.
It is still another objective of the present invention to provide a releasing means for releasing means for releasing the safety cones on-by-one to different position on a ground surface.
It is yet another objective of the present invention to provide a control means to control the timing of the release of the safety cones.
It is yet another objective of the present invention to provide one or more sensors to further automate the delivery and placement of safety cones.
It is yet another objective of the present invention to use safety cones which each include a flexible cone part that is placed over a base and whereby the bottom part of the flexible cone part is attached to the base.
The advantage of the present invention is that it automatically takes care of the placement of a plurality of safety cones. There would no longer be a need for a person to manually deliver and place the safety cones. Human interaction would only be required to initiate and stop the release of one or more safety cones. The present invention therefore provides for increased safety. The present invention would decrease or even eliminate the number of fatal or non-fatal accidents as well as chronic injuries of road-workers that are involved in placing safety cones. Furthermore, the time it takes to deliver and place the safety cones will be significantly decreased compared to manual placement. It also allows the driver of the vehicle delivering the safety cones to no longer worry about the cone placement and could therefore pay more attention to the accident or event that initiated the safety cone placement.